Tag Archives: Transit

Transiting

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It a Transit van double here at The Lego Car Blog today, with two rather different examples of Ford’s ubiquitous workhorse.

First up (above) is Versteinert‘s wonderful 7-wide 1970s face-lifted Mk1 Transit camper, wearing some slightly mismatched wheel-arch and sill repairs, a roof-rack loaded with adventure equipment, and being a thousand times cooler than the default Volkswagen Transporter. It joins several other Mk1 Transits in Versteinert’s photostream, and you can finn them all via the link above.

Four decades later, the Mk1’s great-grandson is here in the form of this 5-wide 2010s face-lifted Mk4 Transit crew-van (below) in ‘Abnormal Load Escort’ configuration. Make your own ‘Your Mom’ joke. Regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg is its creator and there’s more to see of his excellent Transit, and the abnormal load it’s escorting, via the link above.

Survive the Fire

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Ford’s Transit was an emphatic success when it launched in the 1960s. By the late ’70s almost every van on British and European roads was a Transit, with vans called ‘Transits’ regardless of their actual make and model.

But the Transit was also disposable. Built as a tool, rarely looked after, and thrown away afterwards, the attrition of the Transit was almost total. Almost.

In 1960s-70s Germany, the Transit Mk.1 was a popular fire response vehicle, carrying ladders on the roof, pumping equipment inside, and with a siren and an upturned plant-pot blue light mounted above the cab.

Unlike their invariably white workhorse brethren, Transits in the fire service were well looked after, meticulously maintained, and travelled relatively low mileage. They were also kept for decades, and thus by the time they retired they were the only surviving examples of the Mk1 left. Which means that today if you see a Ford Transit Mk1 in Germany, it’ll probably be red, and once have carried ladders on the roof.

Cue Versteinert‘s lovely 7-wide German fire service Ford Transit Mk1, constructed following his more humdrum version that appeared here last month. Beautiful attention to detail matches the presentation, and there’s more to see of his fantastic fire service Ford at his photostream.

Click the first link in the text above for one of the few Transit Mk1 survivors, or the second for one that almost certainly didn’t.

In Transit

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In the late ’60s Ford were massive in Britain. With dozens of models produced in dozens of factories, they were the best selling car brand by miles. But we’re not here for their cars today, we’re here for something much more important. The Transit.

Launched in 1965 and built not far from TLCB Towers, the Ford Transit immediately became the best-selling van in Europe, and with the Mark 1 in production for twenty years it became so ubiquitous that even today many Brits still call vans ‘Transit-Vans’ regardless of the make or model.

In fact the Mark 1 Transit’s dominance was so great that by the early ’70s London’s Metropolitan Police estimated that 95% of all bank raids used one, as of course did the police themselves.

The Transit’s legacy continues today, with the fourth generation being the best selling vehicle of any type in the UK, and since its release in America, its the best selling van there too.

But back to 1965, and this fantastic 7-wide Speed Champions homage to Ford’s most important post-war vehicle. Constructed by Flickr’s Versteinert it captures the classic van’s aesthetics beautifully, and Vernsteinert’s superbly presented model looks the best way to move stuff about in the late-’60s that we can think of. Of course in the late-’60s, the Transit was pretty much the only way to move stuff about.

There’s more to see at Vernsteinert’s photostream, and you can join every other ’60s van driver from florists to bank robbers via the link in the text above.

Alternative Alternative Lifestyle

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It seems the ironic that those extolling the virtues of ‘alternative living’ all do it in exactly the same way. But you don’t have to be an all-natural-vegan-top-knot-wearing-bearded-Volkswagen-bus-driving-douchebag to live the ’60s bus life. You could do it in a Transit. And the Transit is better.

Faster, more comfortable, more reliable, less polluting, quieter, and easier to drive, the Mark 1 Ford Transit makes for a much better bus than the noisy, slow, absurdly expensive default.

This lovely recreation of the first generation Transit comes from Flickr’s OutBricks, who has captured the classic van wonderfully in 7-wide. There’s more to see of the build at Out’s photostream, and you can can explore his alternative to the alternative lifestyle vehicle of choice via the link above.

Jam Van

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British police vehicles don’t wear the myriad of different liveries that feature across the United States. All feature the ‘battenberg’ chequered design, named after the famous Victorian cake that shares the same pattern, and it does look quite cool. Even on an embarrassingly unthreatening 1.6L Astra or Focus.

However until recently The Metropolitan Police (who look after the thirty-two London boroughs, counter-terrorism, and the Royal family) did have a distinct colour scheme, wearing a livery based upon a simple lunchtime snack rather than an English cake. We’re not sure why British police forces design their vehicles after party food, but we’re all for it.

Anyway, this previous-generation Metropolitan Police Ford Transit does wear the now-replaced Met Police ‘jam sandwich’ livery, which has been recreated rather wonderfully by regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, complete with a British police officer (aka ‘Bobby’). Said officer is a little out of date now as British police don’t wear their ‘custodian helmets’ when driving, but they do still put them on to beat you with their baton, what with that being a special occasion.

There’s more to see of Ralph’s Metropolitan Police ‘jam sandwich’ Ford Transit on Flickr, and you can take a bite via the link above!

The Van

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Almost every car manufacturer makes vans these days, however in Europe there was a time when there was pretty much just one; the Ford Transit.

So ubiquitous was Ford of Europe’s product that for decades the words ‘van’ and ‘Transit’ were interchangeable, like ‘vacuum cleaner’ and ‘Hoover’, or ‘hot tub’ and ‘Jacuzzi’.

Those days are long gone with the Transit now one of many, but Flickr’s Jonathan Elliott remembers a time when the Blue Oval had van market domination with his wonderfully pretty 6-wide Mk1 Transit.

Jonathan has captured the original Transit beautifully and there’s more to see at his photostream here.

Social Distancing

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In these times of social distancing, escaping to a campsite seems pretty tempting. Except it would likely be full of vloggers in Volkswagen Campers eating all-natural-ethnically-sourced-peace-crisps and claiming positive energy can cure Coronavirus whilst never being further than five feet from wifi.

Real wanderers forgo Instagram-friendly VW’s and #vanlife for far more practical vehicles, like this magnificent Ford Transit Mk2 camper, something this TLCB writer hasn’t seen in years but recognised immediately from this brilliant mini-figure recreation by Flickr’s November Juliett.

Hardly any Mk2 Transits have survived, because they were used hard, were never on trend, and were therefore pretty much worthless after a few years. Which makes them infinitely cooler than another $25,000 Volkswagen inhabited by people claiming they’ve given up materialism.

Head into the wilderness for some proper social distancing courtesy of November’s superb Ford Transit Camper via the link above.

Battle for the Moon / Outside Lane

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The Elves are feeling spacey today, and thus we have two weird and wacky sci-fi builds to share with you. The first (above) comes from Shannon Sproule and is apparently an ‘American Zero-Length X-11 Launcher’ designed in The Battle for the Moon. In the words of its creator; “A space tank carrying a rocket… it looks so cool!”

Today’s second build (below) comes from TLCB favourite David Roberts, the ‘Green 23’. “Regarded as the Ford Transit van of space” it performed a variety of jobs across the galactic disc, probably with scant regard for space transportation laws, a library of tabloid newspapers on the dashboard, and a tailgating policy matched only by Audi drivers.

See more of both builds on Flickr via the links!

Home is Where You Park it

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This wonderful little Ford Transit Mk1 camper van was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today. Being old, slow, and without a single racing stripe or gun anywhere to be seen we don’t think the Elf in question really appreciated it, but nevertheless they thought it would earn them a meal token and thus they returned it to TLCB Towers. Which was a good thing, because we do appreciate vehicles like this, especially when they’ve been recreated in miniature as perfectly as this one has. It’s the work of previous bloggee ER0L and you can see more of his lovely 7-wide classic Transit at photostream via the link.

Johnni D Goode

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Dutch builder Johnni D’s Photostream is home to some great, small Lego cars. Recently it’s been filling up with comic style, 4-wide hot rods of all sorts of shapes. There are over 120 at the time of writing. They range from rat-rods (above) to custom Transit vans (below), via hatchbacks, campers and pick-ups. It’s well worth clicking this link to enjoy the variety of these builds.

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Totally Tubular

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Lego Ford Transit VW Buggy

Like, totally. Dude. Right, enough non-sensical surf-talk, these neat Town-scale creations come from Flickr’s Johnni, and you can see more of his brilliant board-laden Mark 1 Ford Transit and classic VW Manx beach buggy at his photostream via the link above.

To the Post Office!

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Lego Ford Transit Van

The Lego Car Blog, despite its charitable nature, is actually a pretty dark and shadowy organisation. The location of TLCB office is a closely guarded secret, TLCB staff forgo fame and fortune, preferring to shroud themselves in anonymity’s thick cloak, and the Elves… well, no-one really wants to get close to them so their mythical status is assured for some time yet.

Previous bloggee Thomas Graafland has theory though, and has boldly stated that TLCB operates from the back of a re-commissioned ex-Royal Mail Ford Transit, which he’s built in Lego form.

We can’t confirm or deny this hypothesis, but what we can say is that we absolutely love the van. Firstly it looks wonderfully realistic – our European readers will immediately recognise the ubiquitous Mk.4 Transit silhouette. Secondly, Thomas has crammed in all the features that we like to see in Lego creations; including working suspension, opening bonnet and doors, and working lights – plus there’s a comfy chair and giant screen in the back for blogging, bench seating for the Elves and racing seats up front for the staff.

Lego Ford Transit V8

Thirdly, Thomas has given the Elves a bit of a treat too. You might have noticed the quad exhausts in the image above… this Transit doesn’t have Ford’s usual diesel lump up front. Nope, this one is fitted with a mid-mounted V8, as per the ‘Supervans’ that Ford constructed in the 70s and 80s, and it’s remote control, meaning there’s much potential for an Elf to smush its unsuspecting colleagues.

Built for TLCB Summer Building Competition, Thomas’ entry scores almost full marks – only missing out on the points available for racing stripes and representing an Elf or two (something that could be surely be added?).

You can see all the details and watch a video of the V8 Transit in action via either Flickr or MOCpages, and if you think you can do better (and win some awesome prizes to boot) you can read how to enter your own creation in TLCB Summer Building Competition by clicking here. There’s just a few weeks to go!

TLCB Summer Building Competition